


Tyr's Travels in Midgard: The Quest for a Sword

by cefyr



Category: Norse Religion & Lore
Genre: Gen, Poetry, Prose and Poetry, Swords
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-04
Updated: 2016-08-04
Packaged: 2018-07-29 09:37:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7679377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cefyr/pseuds/cefyr
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tyr goes to Midgard in search of a sword.  It's not entirely clear what he wants it for.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tyr's Travels in Midgard: The Quest for a Sword

**Author's Note:**

> This is partly just an excuse for me to write lots of alliterative poetry and pseudo-elderly English.
> 
> The story can be read as a sequel to [Tyr and the Wolf](http://archiveofourown.org/works/5532206). It's not necessary to have read that to understand this one, but it might put some of the plot in a different light if you consider them parts of the same story. On the other hand, it might be more interesting to think of them as two entirely different takes on the aftermath of the binding of the wolf. It's all a matter of how you like to interpret things, really. I've done my best to be just as irritatingly ambiguous as the canon texts.

After the Æsir had bound the wolf and left him on the island called Lyngvi, Tyr went to Midgard and travelled far and wide. And everywhere he went, he asked if anyone had heard of a way to break something which became stronger the more you struggled against it, and which could not be torn apart even by the Æsir. But no one he met could figure out how that could be done. And when they asked him what he needed it for, he would not tell them.

There was a man called Bjarni who lived with his sister Sigrun. Bjarni was a smith who worked all day at his forge and was well liked by his neighbours. Sigrun took care of the house. Many who wanted advice came to her, and few left unsatisfied. After many days' travel, Tyr came to Bjarni and asked him to make a sword.

'It has been told to me by many', he said, 'that you are the best smith here, and that your metalwork makes men weep. I want you to forge me a sword so sharp that it can cut through anything, for I know someone who is bound by the strongest of fetters, and I am on a quest to find that which might set him free.'

'Those who praised my skills so highly were misinformed', said Bjarni, who was an honest man. 'I am not a sword smith; with the things I make, it is their beauty that makes men weep, not their strength.'

Then Sigrun came out of the house. She asked Tyr what he wanted, and they told her. She said:  
'Stranger, seeking a sword smith,  
sad will you leave the smithy.  
The sharpest things wrought here are words,  
wounding and warlike, when Sigrun,  
the word smith, her hammer wields,  
writing runes of her own.'

Tyr said:  
'Stranger you name me  
and strange it seems to me  
that the sister should deny  
the skills of her sibling,  
setting herself up  
as the stronger one.

A sword shall you forge me,  
smith, to show your worth,  
let the blow of the hammer  
burn the hidden weakness  
out of the well-wrought weapon.  
Such is my wish.'

'My sister is right to tell you that her words are sharper than any blade I could make', said Bjarni. 'But let no man call me unwilling to do my best; I shall make a sword, and let you judge its worth.'

Then Bjarni went to his forge and forged a sword. But he was not used to working with iron, and the sword, though well shaped, was neither sharp nor strong, and would not cut through anything. 

'Little do you value my wishes, if this is what you would give me', said Tyr. 'What use is a smith, if he cannot make all metal sing for him and bend itself to his will?'

Sigrun said:  
'Truth was I telling,  
the knowledge you needed,  
yet heeded not when you heard it.  
Heed it now, stranger,  
as the smith's sister  
sharpens the brother's blade.'

She took the sword from Tyr and brought it back to the forge and sang to it, reciting many runes of power. And when Tyr held it up to the light again, it was sharp.

Tyr said:  
'Ill did I speak of your makers,  
bright one; all I could seek  
in a weapon now lies in my hand.  
Foolishly forged, by hapless hands,  
yet strengthened by words of a woman.  
Now tell me, what name will you wear  
so that men may know  
for whom you were forged?

If willing you are to obey  
the will of him who owns you,  
if a bond-breaker you are, breaker of chains,  
bringer of vengeance for friends,  
if eager you are for fighting,  
if foe you are and bane of men and gods,  
then you shall be known as Tyr's right hand,  
and Fenrir shall get what is fair.  
'Blood-thirst' shall be your name,  
and blood, too-easily spilt, shall be your reward.  
Wisely must you be handled;  
worthy you are of these names all.'

Bjarni said: 'I see now that you are no ordinary man. But it was not for blood-spilling that I made you a blade, and I am now less willing to let you have it.'

Tyr said: 'The sword is in my hand; it is mine, and what I do with it is none of your concern. It is well known that no smith ever made swords for peacekeepers, and few were the warriors who never blooded their blades. But I will not be called ungrateful. Name your price, smith, and I will pay you, if it is within my powers to do so.'

Sigrun said: 'Bjarni did not make you a sword. I did, and I will not take payment for it from you, for I fear that it will lead me nowhere good. But I regret now that I read runes over the blade without first knowing its purpose.'

Tyr said: 'I am in your debt then, and shall so remain as long as this blade remains in my hand. As for your regret, it is yours and not mine. I have made a promise, and I shall keep it.'

Saying this, Tyr returned to Asgard. But what he then would use his sword for, if it was to help or hinder the Æsir or the wolf bound by Gleipnir, we do not know, for the Æsir were silent and did not ask him, and no one went out to the island called Lyngvi to see the wolf.


End file.
